I thought I'd forward a relatively brief report on 622-N5, trek 16. My
co-advisor, Brad Slaten, took extensive notes and hopefully he'll
publish a detailed log one of these days.
Day 1: Camping HQ. We arrived the night before so had a full day to
take care of everything. It's hard to imagine doing it in less than a
full day, we sure seemed to fill this day up!
Day 2/Olympia: Dropped off at Carson Museum, toured that for a couple
of hours (boys really enjoyed it, especially the guy with the really
funny accent). Hike to Olympia as our first camp. Trail is just a set
of 4wd roads, poorly marked, and we let them get lost a couple of
times on the way, after which they took map reading more seriously.
Saw a bald eagle soaring, figured that was a good omen! The river was
up and some got wet feet on a couple of crossings. Campsite at Olympia
was pleasant but the bear cable was a *long* way away (1/4 mile or
so). Plenty of water available in the river, needs purification of
course.
Day 3/Toothache Springs: Hiked to Toothache Springs via Zastrow
(stopped there for water, it was before 8am so we didn't do any
program). Hiked up the 4wd road from Zastrow turnaround, worst hike of
the trip as far as steepness and poor footing, plus little shade was
available. Our crew leader started having problems with dehydration
near the top, so we filled him up with Gatorade and carried his stuff
so we could make it into camp. After that we made sure he had plenty
of Gatorade each day. Campsite was great, we had the camp to
ourselves. The spring is about 400 yards up the hill and feeds into a
tank with a faucet still needs purification and had a few swimmers
in it. Most of us side-hiked up Uracca Mesa and over to the other side
spectacular view down toward base camp and the Tooth.
Day 4/Miner's Park: Hike to Miner's Park via Stonewall Pass and
Lover's Leap camp. Kinda steep but decent trail up Uracca Mesa, then
ups and downs to the 4wd road, then downhill on that to the trail to
Lover's Leap. At the Lover's Leap end of that trail there was a sign
saying to use the new trail to Stonewall Pass, but we saw no sign of a
new trail coming the other way. Did see a couple of coyotes along the
edge of that meadow though. Pretty good trail from Lover's Leap to
Miner's Park although mostly uphill. Got there, got a climbing time
slot and set up camp, but rain rolled in and climbing was canceled for
the afternoon. The staff made a valiant but ultimately futile effort
to put on a program around climbing equipment, and after that we
enjoyed showers and laundry (propane heated, no Tabasco donkey feeding
required).
Day 5/Lower Bonito: Hiked via Crater Lake to Lower Bonito. We reached
Crater Lake fairly early, got a 10am spar pole climbing slot, enjoyed
the staff presentation on it, and about half the guys got to climb
before rain set in. It got muddy enough that it would be several hours
before the poles reopened, so we packed up and headed up over Fowler
Pass. It's a pretty good climb, and was raining most of the way up and
over. Windy and cool at the top despite our exercise developed heat,
and the 3 boys without waterproof/breathable raingear were soaked with
sweat. We wanted to side hike Trail Peak but we were running somewhat
late and anyway it didn't look there would be much visibility up there
so we blew that off. Rain had stopped by the time we got to Lower
Bonito, and there was nobody there so we got a beautiful campsite near
the edge of the meadow. Another crew came in later in the evening,
although they were supposed to be somewhere else they had decided they
were too tired to proceed. We had a bit of dry weather to set up, then
more rain came in and we had hail a couple of times the last time
about half inch. Water there was a spring, flowing well but did need
purification. There were some mosquitos, at least when it wasn't
storming.
Day 6/Apache Springs: Hiked over Webster Pass to Fish Camp. One of the
Scouts asked me if it was a hard hike to Fish Camp and I told him "Not
bad, it's all downhill except the first half". This somehow caused him
to feel relieved about it. Weather was good by the time we got to Fish
Camp; after the lodge tour we did the fly tying thing (the staffer
teaching it was really funny), and then tried our hand at fishing.
Several had strikes but I don't think anyone got a fish out of the
water. Many lost their flies, it would have been a good idea to bring
along a handful of cheap flies so they could continue fishing. We
headed out about 2pm up Agua Fria Creek toward Apache Springs. Not a
bad hike along the creek but lots of opportunities to get feet wet.
Then up the "Seven Switchbacks from Hell" to Apache Springs. Actually
we didn't think they were all that bad. Apache Springs meadow was full
of cattle, apparently they like it and hang out there a lot. Got a
nice campsite across the meadow from staff cabin and settled in.
Skipped the sunset hike with intention of doing it the next night as
some boys were pretty tired. Did pick up a couple days food here.
Mosquitos not too bad.
Day 7/Apache Springs: This was our layover day. Cons project in the
morning working on a new trail to bypass the aforementioned "Seven
Switchbacks from Hell". I was impressed by the cons crew, both
enthusiastic and knowledgeable. Our guys had fun with the work and
thankfully rain held off. This was our layover day, so afternoon we
did 3D archery and then the sweat lodge. For 3D archery they were
running out of arrows and hadn't gotten more from base camp so we were
the last crew for a while that got to do it. Everyone really enjoyed
the sweat lodge, we discovered that while it was as refreshing as a
shower, it didn't make us smell much better. We checked out the tipis
and ended up sitting out a rain shower in one of them for a bit; this
was pretty much the last rain of the trip. That evening it cleared off
and we did the sunset hike up to a high meadow with a clear westerly
view toward Wheeler. There was a good snowbank up there which the guys
enjoyed on the way down. Beautiful sunset and well worth the hike.
Day 8/Crooked Creek: Hiked via Bear Canyon and Buck Creek to Phillips
Junction. Picked up the rest of our food there, tanked up on water as
well as doing a few postcards, etc. Then headed up via Porcupine Camp
to Crooked Creek. I think we enjoyed this camp more than any it's
primitive for a staffed camp, no purified water (but a nice cold
spring), supplies packed in by burro, but the staff was great and the
activities low-key but fun. The guys liked chicken-chasing a lot, but
also enjoyed making candles, mountain man bowling, etc. Staff said
that a bear had been wandering the opposite edge of the meadow at dusk
each of the past 5 nights but he didn't show the night we were there.
This was the only staff camp that wouldn't take trash (because it has
to be packed out by burro). There was a good breeze until dusk which
kept the mosquitos away but after it died down there were several out.
Day 9/Clear Creek: We hiked up to Clear Creek got an early start and
arrived pretty early, went up along Rayado Creek via Comanche Camp.
Decent trail, steady uphill but not terribly steep. Got in early
enough to get times for black powder shooting, etc. Mosquitos were
terrible here, good thing I'd brought along some of the 100% deet
stuff. Regular "Off" didn't discourage them much. Campsite was ok but
a bit steep. The boys enjoyed tomahawk throwing and fielded a team in
the evening competition. Their team won the loser's round; perhaps
with more practice they could have done better. Good camp and staff
but it felt pretty crowded with all the crews coming and going toward
Mt. Phillips. Plenty of purified water here.
Day 10/Red Hills: We got up early for the climb up Mt. Phillips. As
many have said, it's pretty steep and pretty rocky. Still, we made it
to the top in an hour and 45 minutes with no packs-off breaks. We
spent 3-4 hours on top as we didn't have much further to go; the boys
found a big snowbank and used a crazy creek chair as a sled. The
adults enjoyed a pleasant sunny high altitude nap during this time. We
finally headed down found the downhill hike tougher (at least for us
older folks with bad knees) than the climb up. But we made it into Red
Hills at a reasonable time. It's a pleasant camp along a creek (which
was the only water). We considered trying to swing by Cypher's Mine on
the following day but after studying the map the crew leader decided
that the extra distance was probably a bad idea.
Day 11/Clark's Fork: Any way you go, this is a pretty long day. We
took the trail out to the north east (skirting the North side of Big
Red), then took a 4wd road over to connect to the Comanche Pass trail.
From there we went down along the Middle Fork of Cimarroncito Creek
into Hunting Lodge. Long but pretty hike, and after the first bit,
mostly downhill. We didn't do the Lodge tour but did stop there for
lunch and to refill on water. Then we headed over past Cimarroncito
Reservoir into Clark's Fork. We got in mid afternoon, so definitely
we'd have been late if we'd tried going via Cypher's. We did manage to
work in branding before the chuck wagon dinner (which tasted really
good despite being only stew and them running out of cobbler). Clark's
Fork wasn't really all that inspiring, just felt crowded to us.
Day 12/Camping HQ: We wanted to try to make it in early, so we got up
early and hit the trail at about 5am. Made good time on the climb up
to Shaefers Pass, where we filled up all available water bottles. Then
headed up around the back of Shaefers Peak and onto Tooth Ridge.
Beautiful hike but poor footing due to being really rocky, lots of up
and down. Made it to the base of the tooth ok, dropped our packs and
bearbagged the little remaining food and went up to the top. There
were a lot of gnats (non biting) up there that annoyed some, but the
view was great. Got back down, ate lunch, and headed along. Just past
Tooth Ridge Camp, our crew leader started having dehydration problems
again. This seemed mysterious since we knew he'd been drinking plenty
we later found out that one of his meds is probably a diuretic which
explains it. We got some more fluids into him, and split up his load
among everyone, and had two of the nimbler scouts walk along right
with him in case he stumbled. We had to make frequent stops in the
shade to cool him off and try to get more fluids into him, but we made
it most of the way down. Finally, at about the last switchback (around
20 minutes from the gate) he just couldn't go on, so we settled him in
the shade of a scrubby juniper and pulled out a cell phone and called
medical. They sent up 3 people, two medics and a conservation guy as
a general helper. The medics put in an IV and put 1.5 liters of fluid
into him, and they'd also brought along a couple of big bags of ice
which they put on his chest to cool him down. We also got him to drink
some more Gatorade and water. They really wanted the crew to stay
together, so they encouraged us all to stay up there, which we did. We
finally got him up and mobile, and hiked the rest of the way out, so
we arrived at HQ at about 5:30pm. They took our crew leader off to the
health lodge to be checked out, and the rest of us grabbed dinner and
then started the process of dealing with checking out when everyone
was closed (6am bus the next morning so next day wasn't an option).
Everyone was incredibly helpful and we managed it although I did end
up having to miss closing campfire to get the last couple of things
done. Our crew leader was released in time to go though, so it all
worked out ok. He's going to be speaking with his doctor about the
diuretic thing and what can be done about it.
All in all, we had a great trek, and things worked out pretty well.
The new water purification tablets worked fine and were easy to use,
and the "exchange program" where you can trade in your empty packets
was pretty painless. We used quite a few tablets without any real
issue. As my co-advisor Brad said, "trekking poles are vastly
underrated". We both really appreciated them. The new maps are great,
after the first day we didn't have any navigation problems on about
day 5, one of my Eagle scouts who'd sort of assumed responsibility of
chief navigator told me "Mr. Cook, we're not naviguessing, we're
navigating. We haven't made a mistake since the first day, and we're
not going to." Turned out he was right; and by the last few days I
didn't even bother to look at the map unless they asked me, which
didn't happen very much. We did make a few campfires, mostly for the
smoke to try to discourage mosquitos. We got a great ranger, Patrick
Arsenault (who's on this list hi Patrick!); he really clicked with
the boys and did a great job of getting us off on the right start. Our
crew leader did a fine job of pulling together a fairly young crew
too. I was really proud of them!
Oh, and a special thanks to those of you on the list who provided lots
of useful advice - it was a great help, we've have been much less
prepared without it.
-- T.W. Cook - SM Troop 151 - Georgetown, Texas http://www.troop151.org I.)f8r,ˊl lJr{'rya,rX.+- jwljm l?+-\Iݖ+-rjwlb kx&Iݦ-x,aYkx&.+- jm l?+-ک).+-٢+-hbj''zkx&̨ڮvbq~*+a}eI.Ƨu'(2zm-햌~rr.Hvv'r~ܛrWݭޭReceived on Wed Jul 6 20:25:13 2005
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